Saying goodbye to a Winnipeg restaurant owner with a legacy of kindness

Shirley Eng, the charismatic, down-to-earth owner of the famous chicken finger restaurant Mitzi’s, unexpectedly passed away at the beginning of December at age 78, according to her family.

“I think that people will never forget my mom, there's no way you can forget somebody who's given her whole life to serving a community you can't forget, how she made you feel,” said Irene Wallin, Eng’s daughter.

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“My mom was iconic. She was legendary. She was a staple, an institution in downtown Winnipeg. I'm grateful that I got to be a small piece of it.”

Mitzi’s closed down in April 2024 when Eng retired after serving comfort food with a smile for 46 years.

Eng, born in Canton, China, in 1946, moved to Winnipeg in 1972 to join her sister in Canada.

A photo of Shirley Eng growing up in China. Eng’s family estimates this photo is from the 1960s. (Supplied Photo: Ali Collins)

Two years later, she would marry the love of her life, Peter Yick Fo Eng, and the two would go on to open their iconic chicken finger eatery in 1978 after first starting a Chinese food restaurant at Garden City Shopping Centre.

By the 1980s, the couple decided to revamp their menu and perfected the chicken fingers that would make the restaurant a staple in the Winnipeg dine-in scene.

“The first time maybe we sold 15 pounds a week, and right now it’s between 500 to 600 pounds a week of chicken,” Eng said to CTV News shortly before the restaurant closed in April.

After a long battle with cancer, Eng’s husband passed away in 2001.

Wallin came back to work with her mother full time at the restaurant in 2013 and worked with her mother for 11 years - something she called a privilege and a joy.

“Getting to see and interact with all her customers, my mom always made time for everybody,” Wallin said.

“It's not just one or two customers. It's a community. It's a family of people that she was able to build over her 46 years. She always made them feel loved and welcomed and that's hard to do. Twenty years had passed, and she would still treat them as if she just met them yesterday.”

When she was not serving up dozens of delectable dishes, Eng enjoyed travelling with her family, often some of her fondest moments away from the restaurant.

One of those moments was bringing her family back to Hong Kong, visiting family again for the first time in decades.

“We went with her in 2008 with my brother, sister, and I, and we got to meet a lot of our extended family that I don't think we ever would have had the opportunity to meet,” Wallin said.

“She hadn't seen her two sisters for over 40 years. I remember distinctly, we got to the hotel and she's just very excited, nervous at the same time, and super excited, and just seeing them get to reunite. Her reaction, of course, was happy tears.”

Wallin said her parents’ outgoing personalities were something instilled in her and her siblings from a young age. The give-the-shirt-off-your-back kind of character that never went away.

“Always be kind and help others in any way you possibly can if you're able to,” Wallin said.

“She's always had a happy-go-lucky personality. When you have both parents who are like that, how do I put it? It’s heartwarming to know that there's two really good people that were in this world.”